Bowman Brad Marsh was then charged with the repair effort, spending more than three hours, grinder in hand, fixing the busted tank.

Riou said there were still a few finishing touches to be made, but for now the tank was fixed and ready for the final charge to the Leg 7 finish at Lisbon, Portugal.

And while they were draining the water and making repairs THEY KEPT CHARGING FULL BLAST.

They are all over Puma at only 25Nm from Abu Dhabi and managed to increase the distance over Telefonica. The no wind zone ahead seems to be smaller than expected and they should have a decent wind for more 6 to 8 hours, even if the speed starts decreasing.

Camper is also making a great race and is all over Telefonica at 20NM from Puma.

with about three hours to go till they have only 10k wind and start to enter that zone with very weak and changing winds that will decide the race, Groupama is side by side with Puma. Telefonica and Camper are at only about 15Nm. Abu Dhaby has that head start of about 10, 15Nm.

The boats more to the North have slightly more wind pressure and the ones to the South will enter just a bit sooner on that difficult low wind stretch but will have a shorter route.

On the next hours the speed is going to diminish first to near 10K than for less than that. Camper and Telefonica, that are almost side by side will approach Groupama. Puma will come to less than 10Nm from Abu Dhabi....and then the race will be decided on the tactics to pass a small patch of sea with almost no wind.

That will start to happen in about three hours and you can follow it almost live on the tracker.

It´s interesting to see the HRs´ and Najads´ evolving to more normal sailboats than just big, heavy motorsailors. My mother is on Orust today to pick up her new HR 310, ordered with small bowsprit, Asymetric spinnaker and code 0. Should be interesting to go for a ride on that boat! She sent me some pictures the other day, from the shipyard.

//Mr W

Did she ever considered a NAJAD? What considerations she tooked to choose HR? How long does Halber Rassy takes to deliver the boat?

Groupama has been the fastest boat and it is finally at only 10Nm from Abu Dhabi that has lost not much to Puma. Camper and Telefonica are now the fastest boats and are winning to everybody. They are all making between 12 and 14K. In an hour or two they will be happy if they can make 7 or 8 k and the chances are that some of the boats will get in trouble during the night with no available wind.

That is going to be an interesting night for us but a terrible night for some of those guys.

Hunter Marine products [branded as Legend Yachts in the U.K.] are distributed throughout the world in over 50 countries in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim region. So, whatever part of the planet you cruise, you’re sure to meet others who are sharing the experience of enjoying sailing the Hunter/Legend way.

They are known to use twin keels instead of the wing keel for having a low draft.

Well, you are looking to luxury side of things. This one even have teak decks and that is quite astonishing on a cat

The boat as also some interesting features but I don't like the big freeboard and the windage the big cabin will make. I know if you have a bigger interior space you have to have a big volume over the water...

That is a compromise you have to chose and the boat looks nice and interesting.

I knew that Glénans, one of the best sailing schools in Europe had bought several Salona 37 for use as offshore training sailboats but did not knew that they had bought one of the new 35…and a custom one since it has only a wheel instead of two.

Awesome race. They are all out of the hook in what regards being stuck in that no wind zone and the night winner was Ian Walker on Abu Dhabi that has managed not only not to lose the advantage he had but managed to increased that advantage.

They are at about 200Nm from the finish and their lateral distance is almost 100Nm

But now the fastest boat is again Grupama. They give a 20Nm advantage to Abu Dhabi over Groupama but frankly I don't understand their maths. The real distance seems a lot shorter to me and Puma is also close.

This is going to be a hell of a finish. I guess that in the afternoon I am going to pick my binoculars and I am going to Cabo da Roca to see the final fight live

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